//------------------------------// // Ch. 1 Deus Ex Concertina // Story: Fallout Equestria: Thorncroft // by ErrantIndy //------------------------------// Chapter One: Deus Ex Concertina “When you can't gallop, you crawl, and when you can't crawl - when you can't do that...” I was actually getting worse. I know now that no one in the Wastes should be surprised. Things always got worse, except when they get better, but those times are so few and far between they might as well not exist. However to my bullet-whisked brain, I’d figured getting shot in the head and mutilated to death and back ought to be the lowest of low points. Nope, I was startled how I wrong I was. I’d trudged across the wind-swept sea of grass for days. I wasn’t sure how I knew it, but I could find good, clean water. I guess it was instinct. I’d get thirsty, and then I’d go find water like I knew the area. I knew I could eat the grass I was walking through, so I didn’t go hungry. I couldn’t die. I wouldn’t allow myself to die. I had somewhere to be. Somewhere I...I had not a clue where this somewhere was...or what or who...was at this somewhere. It was somewhere, and at the moment I had nothing other than the few minutiae I’d remembered thus far rattling around in my skull. I needed this. I needed something to keep my hooves moving. And so I did. I didn’t sleep much during those blurred days. I walked and walked. When I did stop, I only did because I was exhausted. I had somewhere to be. Well, to be honest, I didn’t want to sleep anyways, not until I was so exhausted I was falling unconscious. I found I slept best that way. I didn’t dream that way. The first few days I’d tried to sleep in a normal way like my instincts seemed to say I slept. The nightmare was horrible. It was the same one over and over. No hint to my life before the bullet through my eye. All the nightmares were cutting, burning, and then blackness. Cutting, burning, and blackness. Cut. Burn. Black. Over and over the nightmare repeated. I didn’t sleep those nights I tried. So I stopped sleeping. Falling over exhausted was working much better for me, mentally. Physically however, I was falling apart. I’d been in dull pain when I’d first awoken. But since I’d been walking the pain had become excruciating. Every stride felt like it was tearing my wounds open. A quick glance at my sides and flanks proved that it wasn’t just a feeling. I was bleeding again. I had to to keep going. I had to keep following this...this. Dammit, why didn’t I know what to call this thing? I don’t know even what it is. It was as much instinct as finding fresh water, as noting the grass was good to eat, as anything that’d kept me going thus far. It was...a feeling in my hooves. Sound’s stupid when I think about it that way, don’t it? But that’s exactly what it is. Every time I step, I can feel myself pulled in a direction, but not in my hooves...dammit, Celestia on.... Celestia... Great another stupid blank. Who was she? And what was she doing on a pogo-stick? Okay, what I do know. I feel a connection to my mysterious, invisible path when I set a hoof on the ground, but its pull is higher up in my chest. It’d tugged me along urgently, unerringly. If I wasn’t skipping sleep already for the nightmare, I would be for this. All that mattered was getting to the other end of this path. It frightened me a little really. In my gut, I felt I really didn’t want to reach my destination; I had to. But I was more scared that the tug would stop, and my only link to the world would be severed. That I w...that....that...that was new. I stopped and looked up from the grass I’d been staring at. The terrain rolled gently in every direction. Grass waved over the hills in every direction except directly in front of me. There a short distance...well relatively short, considering the distance I’d walked thus far, was a long strip of black rock, a...road. Road! Something new to remember, sweet merciful Celestia? Two things to remember! The remembrance has been doubled! So Celestia’s a merciful pogo-sticker, good to know...why do I remember what a pogo-stick is when I’ve forgotten so much else? Anyways as interesting as thoroughfare epiphanies were, that wasn’t what I stopped for. Something...some things were around me. I turned around looking behind me. Nothing. I looked left and then right. Nothing. I frowned. “H-hello?” I asked, pausing for an answer. Still nothing. I frowned. I sniffed the air cautiously and froze. There was a scent on the wind. My gut told me this was bad scent. I backed up. I couldn’t see what it was or where it was. I couldn’t hear anything. But I knew something...no things were around...around me. They were surrounding me. I looked around again. Nothing, still bucking nothing. My hooves. It was in my hooves. Just like my path, I could feel them in my hooves and then in my chest. I could feel them, their steps. There were two in front of me, one to my right, and the one to my left trying to slip around behind me. Buck me. Celestia, buck me hard with a....wow, this Celestia did dirty things to folk... I had to keep my head swiveling about to compensate for the one eyeball in my skull. I couldn’t see a damn thing, and I doubt another eye’d help much. I also couldn’t hear any...my big internal monologue...a hissing rattle started behind me. I jumped and spun, looking into the grass as my addled brain screamed, SNAKE! Snakes, why’d it have to be sn...weren’t snake supposed to have, you know, no legs? Why did this one have four that were coiling to pounce... CELESTIASHOLYMAREFIRE! I threw myself out of the way as the thin air shimmered and suddenly became much thicker. My eye widened. Dog-snakes! Wait that’s not right...coyote-snakes! How was that better to know, brain? How? This was the ugliest...which ya know isn’t a real insult considering how much remembered...but it was powerfully ugly creature. The body of the coyote, the tail and head of snake. Oh, and it had a snake’s fangs, dripping with venom. It skidded around at the end of its jump and turned back towards me, looking hungry. Its tail was a blur as it stalked towards me. I could feel its fellow coyote-snakes moving to surround me again. I bit my lip as I considered my situation. I didn’t think I could make a break for it. I was bone tired, and that thing had moved quick. My gut told me the four of them would run me down lickety-split. I had to fight. Did I know how to fight? I’d find out soon enough. As I dithered, one of those I couldn’t see circled behind me. I could feel that now familiar coiling. I threw a glanced over my shoulder in time to see the air shimmer and one of those things appear, leaping for my flanks. My lovely, lovely instincts took over for my battered brain, and it surprised me and my attacker. I pushed my hind legs off the ground, drew them in, and snapped them out with a ferocity I didn’t know I had. My small hooves struck the beast square in the head. It flipped back over, bouncing into the grass behind me. I craned my neck down and gaped at my hooves. Wow. That was cool. My gut screamed as me, and looked back up. The rest had decided to rush me. The first get my attention was the nearest, the one leaping for my face. No, thank you, abomination of nature; I’ve had enough facial alterations for one lifetime. I reared up and flailed my hooves down at my opponent. One hoof connected and thrust the creature down under me. I let myself drop, bringing my fore hooves down on its body. The scream it made as its midsection crunched under my weight chilled my bones. I jumped back off it. It wasn’t dead, but it definitely wasn’t going anywhere from the way it was flopping. There were two more still, in front of of me now. I kept backing away. These two were more cautious, probably more crafty. They were probably going to attack at the same time from different sides, my brain supplied, getting back into the fight, literally and figuratively. Howdy, brain, glad to have you along. Okay, they were getting ready to...the two rippled into existence far from me. They sent wary glances my way, but their attention was on their crippled companion. Hmm...so they were going to care for...strike that. They pounced on their wounded pack mate and sunk their fangs into him. The coyote-snake squealed as it shook and convulsed. Don’t get bit. Thanks, brain, I figured that out for myself. I kept up my steady retreat. The two kept pumping venom into their “friend” for a moment longer and then withdrew. With nary a glanced towards me they immediately began feasting. I took advantage and took off at a gallop. Apparently, I’d ended up on the path because I felt the tug and followed it straight towards the road. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing. I was making great time, probably made up for the time the fight took. But as I neared the road, the adrenaline began to ebb, and the pain it’d masked roared back pack up my limbs and into my body. I looked at my my abused hide. I was bleeding enough I couldn’t tell if I’d gotten tagged in the fight. Well, I wasn’t foaming at the mouth or convulsing in the prairie grass, so I wasn’t going to die yet. That fight had been something else. I’d moved smoothly, dodging and kicking. Those kicks, especially that buck, had been stunning. It sure wasn’t my memory...muscle memory then. What was I? What had I been? A part of me was proud. I’d defended myself. I was alive! But another part was grave. I hadn’t done wrong, but I was still wary of myself, my strength. That was introspection that’d get me nowhere at the moment. I didn’t have enough answers for any sort of question. I hoped I would soon. What I did have now was a road. A cracked, black road that stretched ahead of me and in either direction to the far horizon. It was as empty as the prairie had been, but I didn’t know if that was good or bad. I was back down to my usual pace of a pained shuffle that I’d found to be so efficient during my travels thus far. I just had to keep following the trail, and eventually I’d get where I was going. Sure. Until I hit the road. The moment I was totally onto the rocky black top my trail disappeared. I wish I could say I took this rationally, calmly. I freaked the buck out. I quickly discovered Celestia was a dirty, dirty mare from the things I recalled out loud about her. I just as quickly discovered I couldn’t find the trail again for the life of me. I crossed the road and searched. I couldn’t feel it in my hooves. I couldn’t see any tracks. I couldn’t smell anything. I walked one direction for a bit, finding nothing. I went the other direction. Nothing. I crossed back over to where the trail ended. I desperately trotted up and down the shoulder, ignoring my pain. Nothing. Nothing. I stopped at the last trace of my trail, my life line. My screaming legs buckled under me and fell into the gravel. I pressed my nose into the invisible trace in the gravel, hoping I would gain some hint, some further clue to what I was supposed to do. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t feel it. Where could it have gone? It wasn’t on the road or on either side. What was the trail? Had there...had there ever been a trail? Had I been following madness? Was all of this my bullet-bucked brain beguiling me? I leaned my head all the way down, pressing my forehead down into the rocks until it hurt. Dammit, brain you got me here. Where to now? WHERE! I lifted my head, pebbles slowly falling from the indentions in my forehead. I began to cry. I hadn’t cried for anything since I woke up. Not the pain. Not my confused state. Not for the bodies that’d been around me when I awoke. “Celestia. Celestia, I...I don’t know who ya are, but-but it seems right to talk to ya. I know I’ve thought some horrible things about ya....but I...but.” I lowered my head and curled it to my side. “You’re the only folk I know. I don’t have any other to turn to. Please, what do I do...don’t leave me here.” I squeezed my eye shut. I waited. And waited. And waited. The brightness beyond my eyelid grew dim. The evening air was chilling. Who was I kidding? I’d lost my mind along with everything else about me. How could I expect some nasty filly I’d never met to magically pull my flanks out of this? I should just lay down and die. “A eastern ranch is just a branch of Nowhere Junction to me. Give me the city where livin's pretty and the mares wear finery.” And if she’s gonna caterwaul like that she can leave me to die. Seriously, with a voice like that. Finally. I looked up and around. “East is east and west is west And the wrong one I have chose Let's go where you'll keep on wearin' Those frills and flowers and buttons and bows Rings and things and buttons and bows” I’ll give Celestia one thing. She thinks she’s a funny bitch. Coming down the road and heading into the setting sun was thoroughly ridiculous creature. He, I guessed he was a he, was tiny grey-furred equine. His eyes were shut, a broad smile on his short face. He was bouncing along happily, singing in time to the tune he played on the contraption on his back. It was some saddle-mounted instrument that extended and contracting and made oddly musical honk as the creature bounced and danced down the road. As he came further the down the road, I saw he was pulling a small tarp-covered wagon behind him. He kept coming, oblivious to me as he enjoyed his song. “Don't bury me in this lone prairie- Oh!” He broke song and finally opened his eyes as he came up beside me. He skidded a bit further, trying to bring his wagon to a stop. When he finally stopped, he began turning the wagon so he could look at me. “But maybe we should bury you, friend. You look awful.” I looked at him for a moment longer and laid my head back down. “Um, ma'am? Molly? Hello?” No thanks, Celestia. I think I’ll just get with that dying plan... Footnote: Level Up! Two Tagged Skills Remembered! -Survival -Unarmed Skills up! -Survival: 42 -Unarmed: 44 Perk Remembered! -“Special” Connection I : You have a special connection to the land! Whatever that means... This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding. You can read Fallout Equestria by Kkat on Equestria Daily. The Fallout: Equestria logo used above was designed by DotRook, who, according to the original deviantArt page, allows usage in supplementary materials created for and associated with the series. Images really do make a difference, so he has our eternal gratitude and respect. If you enjoy Fallout Equestria Side Stories, you will want to check the Fallout Equestria Side Stories post on Equestria Daily and the Fallout Equestria Side Stories thread on Ponychan The Ponychan group is also a hatching ground that you can join if you want to share your experience, writing, or comments with us. The song I mention is “Buttons and Bows,” an old song from the 1940s. The best version, in my opinion, is the one that won it an Oscar for Best Original Song from the Bob Hope movie The Paleface. A grateful thanks goes to all the folk at the FOE protodoc hatching ground for their help and review, especially No One, Triple B, Kibugamikenzo, and a friendly hobo. Much of this could not have been possible without them. The rest of it is all my doing...mostly the bad.